Do Vets Prefer Email or Snail Mail?

The House Veterans Affairs Committee is considering the 2011 Modernizing Notice to Claimants Act (H.R. 2383), which would allow the VA to communicate electronically with vets filing disability claims.

At a committee hearing on Wednesday, Jeffrey Hall, assistant national legislative director of Disabled American Veterans, endorsed the idea, but with some caveats.

Language in the bill says VA can choose to communicate with benefit applicants "by the most expeditious means available, including electronic notification or notification in writing." Hall said that this language needs to be changed to read "effective" rather than "expeditious," and said some vets "may strongly prefer written communication."

Ryan Gallucci, deputy director of the National Legislative Service at the Veterans of Foreign Wars, told the committee that while the VFW viewed email positively, "this new method of communication may not be considered the most expeditious means to the veteran; therefore, it must be requested by the veteran and not mandated by VA."

I think both the DAV and VFW are stuck in the past, ignoring the fact that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans -- who communicate via Twitter and Facebook from combat zones -- view snail mail as a quaint holdover from WWII.